Recent Changes in Internal Auditors' Use of Technology.

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the extent to which internal auditors use software for a variety of audit tasks and if that usage has changed in recent years. The hypothesis is that as software becomes more widely available and internal auditors become more technologically adept, the use of software for audit applications is likely to increase. Another factor examined is the extent to which firms internally develop software, the reasons why internal auditors may choose not to use software, and their level of satisfaction with audit software across applications. The results suggest that software is used most often for data mining and analysis and tests of online transactions, and least often for continuous transaction monitoring and e-commerce privacy and integrity control. From 2000 to 2002, internal auditors' use of software for data mining and analysis, tests of online transactions, enterprisewide risk assessment, and continuous transaction monitoring increased substantially. Less dramatic increases were also found for most of the other applications considered. Consistent with the findings of Bierstaker et al. in 2000, it appears that larger firms still internally develop audit software more often than smaller firms.